636 Sir James Crklito a- Browne [May 3, 



What a Walpurgis night we should have with an ambidextrous 

 orchestra and a hundred ambidextrous couples waltzing on the 

 floor ! 



What is commonly known as right-handedness includes move- 

 ments of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, fingers and thumb, and the 

 degree in which strength and delicacy of movement in each of these 

 predominates on the right side over the strength and delicacy of move- 

 ments of similar movements on the left side varies consideraljly. It 

 would take me too long to enter on these distinctions, but I may tell you 

 generally that right-sidedness is always most marked in the most 

 voluntary muscles, and least so in those which combine most auto- 

 matic with most voluntary action. 



Kicking Powee in Legs in 957 Persons : 694 Males, 263 Females. 



In illustration of this, let me refer to the legs. Right-sidedness 

 in them, as displayed in kicking, is strongly marked in both sexes, 

 but less strongly marked than in the upper limb — the percentage is 

 82 against 1)1 ; and I need scarcely remind you that the automatic 

 work of the legs in walking places them on a much lower voluntary 

 level than the arms. You perceive their reduced voluntary position 

 at once if you turn to the toes and compare them with the fingers. 

 How wretchedly limited are their voluntary performances beside 

 those of the fingers, and yet in them a certain degree of right- 

 sidedness is apparent. I daresay some of you remember the artist 

 at Antwerp who, being minus hands and arms, painted with his foot ; 

 he held the brush with his right toes ; and in those persons whom I 

 have examined who can pick up coins or small articles from the floor 

 by opposition of the big and second toe, all being right-handed 

 persons, could do that better with the toes of the right foot, and 

 most of them could not do it with the toes of the left foot at all. 



But while kicking is a voluntary movement in which only one leg 

 can be w^ith safety employed, there are other leg movements essenti- 

 ally bilateral and becoming automatic, in which one-sidedness may 

 still be detected. In walking ])oth legs are equally engaged, but in 

 starting to walk the initiative will naturally be taken by the leading 

 leg. 



